God's protection while driving

This morning while driving to pick people up for the church's service, I had pedestrians scare me in two separate incidents.

The first incident occurred when I was still near home. I had just turned onto the main road and was headed north when a teenage boy and girl crossed to the middle of the street ahead of me. Once in the middle, they hesitated and then the young man ran in front of my vehicle. That was not a problem because plenty of space remained between me and him. The young lady however remained standing on the white line marking the middle of the street but looked as if she might run anytime. This became more of a problem as I approached her and continued to be unsure of her intentions. I slowed and moved towards the right shoulder to give myself more response time should she make a sudden move. As she stood in the middle, I passed her; after I passed I looked into my rear view mirror to notice what she did. She ran in front a car following behind me; the car braked sharply to avoid hitting her. I was thankful to the Lord that she did not run in front of my car.

The second incident occurred mere minutes later when I was traveling on a different street. My jeep was one vehicle in a line of perhaps six or seven cars all traveling in close proximity to each other. I noticed ahead of me that a young girl perhaps six or seven looked as if she was about to cross the road. I figured she would wait until all five or six cars passed before crossing since there did not seem to be much room between cars for a person to pass safely. Suddenly she darted behind the car that I was following which meant that she was trying to cross in front of me. I hit my brakes while moving towards the shoulder again in an effort to buy time to stop.

She hesitated in the middle of my lane as if she was now reconsidering her decision to cross the road in front of my car. By God's grace I was able to stop in time, and she finished crossing the street in front of my car.

Sometimes the safety God provides from day to day is so providential that we don't even notice it. Today it was strikingly apparent that God was protecting me and enabling me to drive safely despite the careless pedestrians around me.